A Super Long Post!

Hej alle! Sorry we haven't posted for awhile but don't worry, both Sarah and I are alive. I had to fight all instinct and avoid writing 'alive and well' as both of us have not been that well lately and I really shouldn't make things up on our blog, should I? Temperatures have recently plummeted from 10 to 0 degrees so its only inevitable that we would fall sick =( It even snowed the other day! But more about that later...

Thanks to all our loyal readers who keep checking our blog for updates, and especially thanks for the comments =). Also, a special shoutout to our friends back home in Sydney who are currently studying for final exams and use our site as procrastinating material...there really is no other explanation for our statcounter sky rocketing at this time and yes, we know who you are! ;) Well, its been a pretty crazy and busy past 2 weeks..and it goes a 'lil somethin like dis..

Two Mondays ago, I started to develop a sore throat and I was pretty sure it was from all the passive smoking I incur everyday in this city. Although my work is a non-smoking restaurant (one of the few in Copenhagen I'm sure), every single person there (or let me rephrase, every single Danish and Swedish person there) smokes like a chimney out the back and also, there are no laws banning smoking in bars and restaurants in general here, so there really is no escape. Sure, there was the possibility that I could be sick but me? sick? no way! I never get sick..

But as the hours rolled on, the sore throat grew more painful, and the coughing and runny nose started. I decided that it was time to admit that I was sick and headed to the 'apotek' to buy some drugs to conquer this thing. I could have taken the bus but for once in my life, I decided to take the non-lazy option and actually walk. They major construction next tou our college, making the hard to navigate roadworks near out college. A group of schoolchildren, so I stepped off the path to let them past and then 'Crunnnnnch'..there goes my ankle! I had sprained it 1.5 weeks when I was in London and it hadn't completely healed, but this time it rolled right over, and straight away I knew it was much much worse than the first time. I never even made it to the pharmacy and hobbled home instead in great pain to whack on a packet of frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. Crippled and diseased; man, did I feel like the biggest loser. I hate cancelling on things and sounding pathetic, but of course I had to call work that I wasn't able to come in that night. At least the lovely vegetarian curry Jem and Bec made when they came up over for dinner was something to cheer me up!

The next morning I managed to make it to the doctor between the hours of 9 and 10, which is the only time they have 'open consultation'. Sure, high taxes which provide a free health system works well in theory but after dealing with the bureacracy and ineffiencies that come along with it, I very much advocate the 'privatisation promotes efficiency and incentives' theory that we learnt years ago in economics. I have much to bitch about this area but basically they couldn't, or rather wouldn't prescribe me anything for my cold and cough and also refused to give me a referral for the physio until 7 to 10 days later.

My ankle was still in a pretty bad state on Saturday but I decided that I would go crazy if I stayed cooped up at home any longer and headed off on the university organised weekend trip to Odense, the 3rd largest city in Denmark. Odense is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen and the entire city is pretty much dedicated to him; statues, streets, a museum, even the little red and green men on the traffic lights are of him! The ironic thing is that H.C. Andersen grew up in abject poverty in Odense, loathed the place and moved to Copenhagen as soon as he could at the age of 14.

Jem and I in the older part of town after the H.C. Andersen Museum visit One of the many statues dedicated to H.C. Andersen Our walking tour of Odense rudely interrupted by rain in typical Danish fashion Outside the town hall with Jem, Emily from England and Deborah from Scotland Danish girls, Katrina, Marie, Celia and Brigitte The party that evening was at the A-Bar, or the Australian Bar which was decked out in cheesy, over the top 'Aussie' paraphernalia, which included large papier mache crocodiles and sharks, road signs with kangaroos and wombats and Australian slang scrawled on the walls as you can see from below.

Odense boys, Simon and Soren. They bought us these Danish alcohol shots that tasted like cough mixture/licorice..urghhh..I don't think I'll ever understand Danish tastes!

The trip was organised by ESN which is the Erasmus Student Network, which has a group on a few university campuses in Denmark. We were told to bring sleeping mats and sleeping bags as we were to be sleeping in the university gym hall that night. Jem and I had a great time out in the city and found everyone else sound asleep when we arrived back at the hall with the lights out. I didn't have a sleeping mat so I just dragged my sleeping bag into the middle of the hall and tried my best to ignore the great uncomfort of my hip digging into the hard wooden floor. The next morning I awoke when the sun came up, turned around and saw everyone else sleeping on large soft crash gym mats on the other side of the hall. Doh! Another biggest loser moment for Cynth there..

Funen Village Outdoor Museum

After arriving back home in Copenhagen from Odense, I rushed out to meet Dani, Philipp, Anne and Jurek to watch Baroque Fever and Zoom perform at Literaturhuset as part of the Wunderground Festival which was also a part of Copenhagen Music Week. What I love about Copenhagen is that they go to great efforts to put on concerts and gigs even in small venues which only hold small audiences, but thats what creates the great atmosphere and vibe at these events.

The smooth 'massage queen of noise rock' Signe Wille-Jorgenson with Zoom

Anne, me, Daniela and Philip in front of Baroque Fever's set up

I left the concert early to pick up my friend from Sydney, Joel, who was here on a secret mission to propose to his girlfriend and one of my bestest buddies, Trish who was scheduled to arrive here in a few days time. We spent Monday and Tuesday in between my classes scoping out suitable locations for the big surprise and the weather was wet, windy and just horrid. Still, the weather is also known to be erratic and unpredictable here so we both prayed hard that the weather would be fine on Wednesday and kept the plan to be the outdoors at Rosenborg Have (the gardens next to Rosenborg Castle). Between my classes, I sent Joel off to Nyhavn to check out suitable restaurants and guess who he saw...Justin Timberlake! He was in town to host the MTV Europe Awards on Thursday and was filming short clips in Nyhavn. Hrmphh..not fair! I've been here for four months and Joel just saunters into town the night before and spots JT. At least he had a video camera to capture it =)

Monday night was a work social - dinner and bowling..woohoo! I had the No. 44 ginger chicken udon, No. 99 duck gyoza and No. 2 fruit juice. When you're on a student income anything free is good really! I decided not to bowl because of my foot and was the nominated photographer instead. I had no complaints there...

Oscar, me, Joni, Martin, Sarah-Simone and Mark

Julie and Oscar

Mmm..Wagamama goodness =)

Go team! Bo, Julie, Ruban, Evangeline and Martin

Manager, Jorgen, who is a super nice guy

Martin, Andreas and Bo. Hrmm..so who wants to come visit me in Copenhagen now? =P

Manager Edda and Joni

Swedish boys Oscar and Mark hamming it up for the cameras

Swedish boy, Martin

Skol! Back of house staff Roger, Randy and Yogesh with Jorgen

On Tuesday afternoon, Jeanne and Trish arrived from New York. We went to the ballet at the Old Opera House, Schumanns 2. Symphony and Etudes which I thought was awesome, only the girls were very jetlagged and fell asleep during the performance. It took so much willpower and biting of my tongue not to let anything slip about the big plan tomorrow to Trish but thankfully she didn't pick up on anything!

On Wednesday morning I woke up to see snow falling outside my window! What the?! I had been told repeatedly by Danes that it would not snow till February and this was only the first day of November! God really had ignored our prayers..of all days it had to snow today didn't it! The winds were also so strong that the snow was going horizontal and melting almost immediately after reaching the ground, leaving ice and sleet on the roads. How lovely. Our contingency B, C, D and E plans did not account for this! To make matters even more complicated, Joel was hiding out in a hostel in the centre of town and didn't have a mobile making it difficult to co-ordinate this. I know its not a very pretty view of the construction outside my window but yes, it is snow!

The only tourist activities we could do were the museums so we headed to the Statens Museum for Kunst to kill some time but it was secretly all part of the plan since it was close to Rosenborg Castle. Thanks to Sarah for aiding and abetting in the plan with her suggestions, even though she had no idea at the time she was doing so =). Next four photos are courtesy of Trish, thank you!

The weather didn't clear up but Joel was restless and impatient and called me to tell me to bring Trish out to the park regardless of the weather. The story gets interesting now with small hiccups along the way which you can read here and here so I won't bother writing it all out again. Finally, yay! Trish finds the roses and Joel in the park and he pops the big question and she accepts, only its really freezing out there so they go to the bookcafe to wait till I finish class. Congrats to the happy couple!

The roses which Trish was taking photos of without realising they were for her!

I love this photo because you can see the sheer joy and elation in Trish's face and also the emotion in Joel's face, only I can't really tell whether his nose is all red from the freezing cold... In the evening, Joel and Trish go and have a nice romatic dinner at Nyhavn while Jeanne adn I check out the Danish Design Centre. Quite a small place but they had interesting exhibitions and nifty creative items in the shop.

One of the displays which was set up as a supermarket with empty containers with societal comments on them..I thought it was very intelligent

Thursday was set to be the big MTV Europe Awards in Copenhagen and they had erected a huge stage in the middle of the Radhusplasen (town hall). We were hanging around there on Wednesday night when we realised that Snoop and Pharrell and their hawt dancers were on stage rehearsing for their performance. Aaaahhh! So there we were, about 20 of us with our faces pressed up to the fence yelling and screaming excitedly. The funny thing was that everyone standing there was non-European and all the Europeans walking past kept asking 'Who is that?', 'Are they famous?', 'Should I know who they are?' Yes of course you should!! Then suddenly Snoop yells out over the mic, 'Let those people in!' referring to us of course! I pleaded with the security guards that he was being serious and to let us in but they just smirked at me and kept on smoking their cigarettes and doing nothing in typical Danish security guard fashion.

Snoop doin his thang..

I know theres a fence in the way but hey you can still make out that its Pharrell and Snoop! Once they left the stage and Keane came on to rehearse we headed to Mojo Blues Bar to watch Joachim Svensmark Installation and to celebrate J and T's engagement =)

Thursday night was the MTV Movie Awards but I had to work. We tried to catch some action on the street afterwards but the truth is that Danes really don't care about American pop music and the night was absolutely freezing so not much was happening. Trish and I headed down to Ideal Bar at Vega for their Thursday night Hip-hop Kontoret which played awesome awesome hip-hip. As much as I enjoy being introduced to alternative-jazz-electronic-rock-fusion-whatever European music during my time here, the truth is that I miss good ole fashioned hip-hop. It was only appropriate that Trish was in town and we showed these Danes what hip-hop moves look like. Ahem.

The MTV stage set up in the Radhusplasen Friday night we headed off to a belated Halloween party at Sam's. My outfit consisted of a pathetic attempt to put on some goth style pale face and dark lipstick make-up..oh well at least I tried! Painting Jeanne's face on the S-train Don't you love our face paint/eyeliner?! Bec, Sam and Jem looking bloodied and gruesome And the final installment was the party at Rosa's on Saturday night after work. No need for comments as I think the pictures speak for themselves =P

Congratulations and tusind tak if you actually read all the commentary right up to the end. I'm actually sitting in a net cafe in Berlin frantically trying to finish this office while Trish patiently waits. I took the train down to Berlin last night to meet up with Jeanne and Trish, will be here until Saturday, then to Dresden and Prague the next week. Hopefully more photos when I get back!

Hej Hej!

xxx